remember writing in the early days of the "evita" run we hit the -- same time of the russian invasion of afghanistan which nobody understood what was going on. i'm going off on a tangent. it changed -- suddenly people started to talk about politics again and said well maybe eva peron and what we were trying to say there was an interesting subject. >> how much did the critics get to you over the years? >> i didn't care very much if i don't think that the critics understand music. >> but somebody you respect, what's the most hurtful kind of thing that they would say that would get to you. >> somebody who i did respect as a musician said that the score was humdrum or something then i would be sad if i believed in the score. there are always going to be occasions where i think with musical theater and particularly what i do in musical theater it gets a little bit curious because i fit between two camps. clearly i would be the worst composer in history for "hair spray." i would be the worse composer for "book of mormon." on the other side i'm more operatic but not that serious. >> broadway is making a lo